Cardiff Council has announced that it plans to put more electric buses in operation, thanks to funding from a £8m clean vehicle grant offered by the Welsh government.
During a meeting of Cardiff Council’s Cabinet members last week, a scheme was approved to allow bus operators to bid for Welsh Government funds to help increase the number of electric buses operating in Cardiff.
Both the Welsh government and Cardiff Council hope to ensure that all buses in Cardiff produce zero emissions by 2035.
Dan De’Ath, councillor and cabinet member for strategic planning and transport, said: “The council set out its Bus Strategy in November last year.
“We want to increase the number of people travelling by bus in Cardiff and our strategy aims to do this by: introducing cheaper fares; partnering with Transport for Wales to develop an integrated ticketing system which works with the Metro and OVO bikes; getting more low emission buses on the network; building the infrastructure to make bus travel easier and quicker; and improving the customer experience.
“The council has engaged with all of Cardiff’s bus operators to let them know about this exciting funding opportunity.
“Now that the cabinet has agreed, we will use this feedback from the bus operators to set the criteria for the application process and get these new electric vehicles onto the network as quickly as possible.”
In January this year, the council partnered with the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Ultra-Low Emissions Bus Scheme to bring 36 new electric buses to the city fleet, with DfT making £5.7m in funding available through the scheme.
The new e-buses could save a reported 650,000 tonnes of carbon emissions during their lifetime, which is estimated to be between 12 to 15 years.
The deadline for applications from bus operators to the council is the end this month (October 2022).
